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The Best of Select: Games 9
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Text File
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1995-09-02
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63KB
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1,892 lines
MechWar
Version 1.2
Klaus Breuer, 1995
Dedicated to:
Vernon Everett - good friend and great drinker :)
If all else fails, read The Manual
Usually all else failed because you didn't
Contents
1 What is this thing? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1 What are the differences to MechWar v1.12? . . . . 2
2 To Do First! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3 Caution: Beta Version! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3.1 Why only Beta? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3.2 What are the biggest omissions? . . . . . . . . . 3
3.3 So why waste our time with this? . . . . . . . . . 3
3.4 Ok, so what's in and what isn't? . . . . . . . . . 3
3.4.1 This is already included: . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.4.2 This is planned for the final v1.2: . . . . . 4
3.4.3 The Bugs! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4 Legal Stuff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.1 Copyright, Trademarks and other Lawyer Stuff . . . 7
4.2 Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.3 How to register . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.4 Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
5 System requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6 Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
7 The configuration file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
7.1 The options in detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
7.1.1 Debug options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
7.1.2 Video Card Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
7.1.3 Graphics Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
7.1.4 Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
7.1.5 Optional Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
7.1.6 GUI Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
7.1.7 SoundBlaster support . . . . . . . . . . . 18
8 The Battle File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
8.1 A tale of two files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
8.2 The file formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
8.2.1 *.GRD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
8.2.2 *.001 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
9 The game itself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
9.1 What's BattleTech, anyway? . . . . . . . . . . . 21
9.2 Starting it up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
9.3 The Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
9.4 The command line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
9.4.1 Turn start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
9.4.2 Vehicle Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
9.4.3 Infantry Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
9.4.4 Arming Infantry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
9.4.5 Arming Vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
9.4.6 Arming Fortresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
9.4.7 End of Turn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
10 Some thoughts on the AI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
i
11 Frequently Asked Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
12 Contacting the author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
13 Limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
ii
1 What is this thing?
For all of you who hate manuals that just blurb endlessly on before
explaining what they are all about:
This is a Public Beta of the MechWar program, a port of FASAs BattleTech
board game. It is a straight simulation of the board game complete with
hexes and all and contains nothing for all you twitch-gamers out there :)
1.1 What are the differences to MechWar v1.12?
Uh - lots. I completely rewrote the game, from scratch.
Not only have I purposefully hidden plenty of new bugs for you to find
;), I have also added goodies like: better graphics, infantry, vehicles,
life forms, much improved maps, intelligent (?) opponents, the ability to
reconfigure practically everything, and so on.
Have a look, I think you'll be surprised.
2 To Do First!
Before starting the game, check through the MECHWAR.CFG file and set your
video card! Try VESA first.
3 Caution: Beta Version!
This is a BETA VERSION. It is NOT FINISHED. It MIGHT CRASH.
3.1 Why only Beta?
I'm flying off to South Africa tomorrow, where I'll spend 4 weeks on an
geography excursion. I had hoped to finish MechWar v1.2 before that, but
1
Proteus reared its head again and I was swamped in work (was worth it,
though).
Thus I release the current state of work as Public Beta. I guarantee that
it will take up space on your computer. I don't say it'll do anything
else at all (in particular, I've heard of hassles with Cirrus video
cards).
The final version will come as two files:
mech12a.zip containing the game itself.
mech12b.zip containing all the editors.
_________________________________________________________________________
1. A rather large medical computer program to treat brain/eye cancers
using Proton Beams -- our group has been working on it for quite some
time, and I rate its importance somewhat over MechWar's :)
- 2 -
3.2 What are the biggest omissions?
I am most sorry for (so far) not including the four most important bits:
LOS No Line Of Sight code exists yet. So if you can see a
target, you can hit it (shooting over hills and houses
in the process).
The final version will include full LOS-based gameplay
(meaning you can only see a target if you have LOS to
it).
To-Hit Currently, every weapon will always cause maximum
damage. This is bad, because currently speed won't
protect you.
Hall of Heros Lots of people have registered (Thanks guys! *wave*) and
all their names will appear in The Hall Of Heros.
However, so far the Hall doesn't exist as it belongs in
the shell. I promise I won't forget.
Mechs I swear I worked hard, but the actual Mech code isn't
finished yet, so I didn't include it in this build.
Sniff.
3.3 So why waste our time with this?
Well, LOTS of people have asked when it's finished and how far it is, and
what'll be in it and what it looks like and...
I thought you'ld be interested.
Besides, this is _the_ perfect chance to slip me some more ideas of what
you'ld like to see in the game.
Finally, you could create some sprites, vehicles, infantry of maps - send
them to me and I'll include them in the final version.
3.4 Ok, so what's in and what isn't?
3.4.1 This is already included:
Life forms Life forms are all the little creepy-crawlies on the